Hard water & its effects on your appliances.

The Battelle Case Study on hard water.

In 2010 the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio, was funded by the WQA to complete a
comprehensive case study on the effects that hard water has on
household appliances & water heaters.
This study tested over 30 different appliances & followed strict guidelines to help quantify what effect scaling has on the efficiency, service & overall
performance of these appliances.
The study presented conclusive data showing how hard water not only damages appliances but also reduces their efficiency &
can increase maintenance costs in areas where water is very hard. A quote taken directly from the study stated that
"The economic savings can lead to recovery of the cost of a water softener and
operating supplies in a period as short as a year."

Reasons why hard water is a costly problem.

25% increase in home heating & appliance running costs.

Appliances such as your dishwasher & washing machine or hot water heaters such as your electric shower, immersion & home heating boiler are especially prone to limescale damage as they contain heating
elements which need to be clean & scale free in order to run efficiently.
When these heating elements scale up they become less efficient & need more power to produce the same amount of heat. This can
increase running costs by as much as 25% in very hard water areas.

Expensive replacement & repair costs.

Limescale deposition forms around the working parts of your
appliances & heating system resulting in expensive maintenance & repair costs.
Limescale damage is proven to cause premature
failure to immersion elements & severely shortens the lifespan of electric showers. Additionally,
home heating boilers need to be de-scaled on average every 1.4 years in hard water areas whereas this is unnecessary with softened water.

Faulty shower heads, taps & cistern valves.

Limescale deposits on the seals inside your taps & toilet cistern valves causing them to leak & fail over time. A drip from one tap can waste up to one litre of water per hour meaning that an
average sized home with 8 taps & 2 toilets could be wasting as much as 240 litres of water per day from drips alone!
Additionally, limescale clogs up your shower heads requiring them to be constantly descaled & often replaced.

Water Softeners

Protect your household appliances from the damaging effects of limescale build-up by installing a high quality water softener.